David Adjaye is equal parts philosopher and planner. Courtesy of Adjaye Associates

David Adjaye is already a thoughtful man. Plus, he’s got a lot on his mind right now: born to Ghanaian parents in Tanzania and raised in the U.K., the architect is at work on Washington, D.C.’s $500 million Museum of African American History and Culture.

Located right on the National Mall, it’s set to open next year.

Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center.im Soar, Courtesy of Adjaye Associates.

Across the globe, Adjaye recently unveiled plans for a geometric-looking children’s cancer treatment center in Rwanda that incorporates shapes and colors favored by local artists.

He’s also the man behind Oslo’s traditional-meets-modern Nobel Peace Center. Closer to home, his cantilevered affordable housing opened its doors in Harlem last summer — the same neighborhood where he is overhauling the Studio Museum.

Adjaye has also designed private homes for the late designer Alexander McQueen and actor Ewan McGregor, among other bold-faced names.

He’s also come up with furniture for brands like Knoll. A retrospective of his work just debuted at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is on view until Jan. 3. Adjaye told The Post about the people and places that fire up his creative juices and how architecture can — and should — change the world.

Of course I draw from Africa. It’s my heritage. But I also draw from many other things. That’s what architects do – we are planetary creatures.

When you move around a lot, you start to realize how explicitly different geographies inform the ways of cities and places. Very early on, I came into contact with different ways of living in space.

The ancient ruins of Egypt’s Karnak temple.Handout

I am really inspired by buildings that respond very directly to climate, local materials and the culture of their place. I am awed by Egypt’s Karnak Temple, one of the earliest and most impressive cathedrals of the ancient world. The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali is another favorite. It symbolizes an incredible fusion of West African and Islamic culture that has made for a unique, entirely mud-brick building. It “returns to the earth” every six months when the local population “re-muds” it after the rainy season.

Torres de Satélite.Protoplasma Kid/WikimediaCommons

The relationship between modern and ancient is very present in my work, as is the negotiation between different social and cultural contexts. That is intrinsic to my approach toward design, which always seeks to be highly sensitive to the cultural framework of different peoples.

A series of monumental sculptures, Luis Barragan’s Torres de Satélite in Mexico City – a moving composition – established a strong resonance with urbanity and materiality in the city.

I see the tea houses of Kyoto as a profound investigation by Japanese culture exploring the relationship between the garden, the folly and the spirit.

I am someone who loves collaboration and dialogue. I love the way that this kind of exchange forces me out of an architectural framework and engage in a larger cultural discourse about meaning.

I have been inspired by people like Oscar Niemeyer, who was working until he died at 104, which is incredible to me. I’ve also had some incredible times with Charles Correa, and was deeply saddened when he passed away. His Kanchanjunga Apartments project in Mumbai is a seminal piece of modern architecture that speaks as much to the modernism lineage as it does to its climate and culture. And another favorite is Hassan Fathy.

I don’t think in terms of singular projects. Rather my ideal is to be able to explore new typologies, experiment with different materials and establish a meaningful connection to contemporary culture while exploring a social discourse. It is the act of engagement, the methodology, which excites me — more so than any idea of the physical manifestation of that process.

Moroso’s Double Zero chair by David Adjaye.Alessandro Paderni

The inspiration for the Double Zero chairsby Moroso was seeing if we could elementalize the chair and reconsider its symbolic role today. I liked the idea of trying to rediscover various states of the chair and its functions. I wanted to see if we could find a modernist approach to 18th-century French round-backed chairs — this is how we arrived at two circular pads that support the user, and this ribbon of metal that flies around them.

For me, the primary act of architecture is to be socially edifying and socially liberating. It’s an emancipatory form. And inherent to this is having a politic which is to do with bringing people up, the politics of progression and of the progression of people.

When you are studying architecture, you must not look at it as simply a profession. You have to be committed to changing or adding to the discussion of the world’s environment. That’s what drives you the most.